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July 29, 2008

SentryBay Launches World’s First Pro-Active Anti-Phishing Solution

by Sam Savage

SentryBay, a leader in real-time internet data security software, has launched PhishLock(TM) a real-time solution which protects users of a company's web site from phishing attacks.

PhishLock offers protection in real-time and can operate in the cloud, putting a stop to online identify theft, lowering fraud costs and preventing disruption to web services, while protecting brands and corporate reputations. The software operates on the end user client, or in the cloud.

Unlike traditional anti-virus, anti-spyware and anti-phishing solutions which rely on identifying malware or black lists which become out-of-date almost instantly, SentryBay's solutions detect virtually 100% of spyware and phishing attacks from the second they are launched, protecting against 'zero-day' attacks.

PhishLock is individually "trained" to recognise key features of a company's website. When a user loads a web page PhishLock checks it is not the company's official web page and analyses the page content. If the site is deemed to be illegitimately mimicking the company site, PhishLock will overlay a warning web page, automatically preventing the user from entering personal information, such as log in details and credit card numbers. This is a more specialised and timely approach to defeating phishing attacks than other methods, including heuristics.

"SentryBay is changing the way organisations approach security by using application-specific solutions to lock down confidential information from the point of data entry - preventing it from being uplifted and used by rogue staff or criminals. Most data is stolen at point of entry by spyware - before it is even attempted to be transmitted via the Internet," said Dave Waterson, CEO at SentryBay.

"While heuristic-based solutions can also provide real-time protection, they tend to pick up less than 50% of new phishing attacks, whereas SentryBay's customised solution picks up close to 100% of phishing scams," he adds.

PhishLock immediately alerts the organisation of the phishing attack so steps can be taken to shut it down. This happens automatically when the first user loads a phishing web site - without the need for anyone to report or discover it.

While research shows that users are increasingly implementing anti-virus software, and to a lesser degree anti-spyware technology, risks remain high as hackers become more sophisticated in their attempts to steal information and malware detection rates drop.

UK payments body APACS is urging online banking customers to remain extra vigilant following a 180 per cent surge in phishing emails in the past year. Meanwhile, Gartner estimated losses from phishing attacks in the US alone were $3.2 billion in 2007.

PhishLock is proactive, simple to deploy and largely invisible to the end-user. The software can be deployed in less than a day via provision of a SDK which includes files, instructions and a demonstration application.

PhishLock is available immediately and SentryBay provides 24/7 technical support.